"All this region is very level and full of forests, vines and butternut trees. No Christian has ever visited this land and we had all the misery of the world trying to paddle the river upstream." Samuel de Champlain

The Bruce Nuclear Generating Station plans to ship 1,760 tonnes of radiation-laced steel through Lake Ontario — a precedent-setting project that has officials worried on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border. On April 1, Bruce Power asked the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Canada’s nuclear regulator, for a licence to ship low-level radioactive generators from its power plant on Lake Huron to Sweden, where 90 per cent of the metals inside the generators are to be cleansed and resold. The remaining materials that are too radioactive to be recycled will then return to the Bruce plant to be contained for the rest of their radioactive lives.

But the planned journey, which would have 16 decommissioned steam generators travel through the Great Lakes, down the St. Lawrence River and then to Sweden this fall, has municipal officials concerned because they haven’t been given the chance to vet the proposal. If approved, this would be the first time a licence has been issued by the commission to ship nuclear waste through the Great Lakes.

Though the shipment would go through the jurisdictions of two countries and multiple states and provinces, the commission, which generally holds public consultations before granting licences, has designated just one person — the director of the commission’s Transport Licensing and Strategic Support Division — to decide whether the shipment will proceed.

The plan is to have the generators trucked in September from the Bruce plant to Owen Sound, where they will be loaded onto an ocean-going ship and sailed over three of the five Great Lakes passing by Toronto, Sarnia, Windsor, Detroit, St. Catharines, Montreal and Quebec City.

Once the radioactive waste is boarded onto the ship, Bruce Power says it assumes no responsibility for the safety or integrity of the generators or for any possible cleanup in the event of an accident during transport. That, Elston says, is the responsibility of Studsvik, the Swedish company that will recycle the material once it arrives in Sweden."

Anglers have another reason to bristle over the Lake Erie invasion of zebra mussels and round gobies.

The Eurasian natives have caused mercury concentrations in Erie walleyes to rise 50 percent since they invaded the lake 20 years ago, while levels in other Great Lakes walleyes have declined or remained stable. That's according to a study by the Canadian Ministry of the Environment, which sampled more than 5,800 walleyes and lake trout between the mid-1970s and 2007.

"During the 1980s, Lake Erie walleyes had the lowest mercury levels, compared to the other Canadian Great Lakes," said researcher Sityana Bhavsar, who led the 30-year study recently published in the American Chemical Society's Environmental Science & Technology journal. "Although Erie levels are now similar to, or lower than, the other lakes, what's disturbing is the increasing concentration trend."

Mercury also can impact fish health and reproduction, but that wasn't an area explored by Bhavsar's research. He blames the Lake Erie mercury increase on gobies and zebra mussels, which Erie has in greater numbers than other waters of the Great Lakes system. Both invaders are native to the Black and Caspian seas and are believed to have arrived in Erie in the ballast water of transoceanic ships around 1990.

"They've changed the food web," Bhavsar said, explaining that mussels filter feed on the lake bottom, taking in mercury along with water. Gobies are also bottom-dwellers and forage heavily on zebra mussels. "As mercury goes up the food chain, it magnifies," he said. "By the time it reaches walleyes, they get the full web effect."

Humans are the top predators in the food chain and walleyes are coveted pan fare in the Great Lakes' $7 billion fishing industry. Canada's commercial fishermen harvested about 2 million walleyes in 2007, while recreational anglers in Michigan, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania harvested a combined 2 1/2 million walleyes that same year. Pennsylvania does not have a commercial walleye fishery, but its recreational industry, including charter captains, is a key part of the Erie economy.

Matt Hrycyk of Chasin Steel charters said he's not surprised by the Canadian findings on walleyes and would expect to learn that perch are similarly affected.

"When you catch perch, they're just loaded with zebra mussels," he said. "Look in shallow water and you'll see the lake's covered with them. The gobies are everywhere, too. It's a shame, but there's nothing to be done about it." But while he and others may be meticulous in how they clean and fillet walleyes, there's no way to cut or cook mercury out of a fish's body, Bhavsar said. Unlike some industrial toxins that accumulate in belly fat, mercury builds in muscle tissue, which is the part people eat."

Parks Canada is notifying those who fish in the alpine lakes in Mount Revelstoke national park that high levels of DDT in the fish mean they will have to release any they catch. DDT levels recorded in fish tested have been up to 16 times higher that Health Canada consumption safety guidelines.

Parks Canada conservation biologist Sarah Boyle says they decided that high levels of DDT discovered warranted the mandatory catch and release policy. Parks also chose to engage the public and media on the subject to help educate people for the discussion they predicted would arise from the announcement.

The issue, says Boyle, is pesticides such as DDT, but also other persistent organic pesticides and herbicides.

Where did they come from? Are they a leftover from before DDT was banned in Canada in 1972, including in regional forestry and other uses? Or are they a result of migration from other countries that enacted bans later, or even possibly from countries in Africa and Asia that still use them today?

Parks Canada has two theories, but more testing is needed for better answers. The first is that the DDT is left over from the 1960s when it was used in the region as an insecticide. DDT, or dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, is a "persistent organic pollutant," meaning it is resistant to breakdown and stays in the environment for decades – even over a century. So the source could be local use decades ago. It could also have travelled from afar. In what is sometimes called the "grasshopper effect" DDT can work itself into earth cycles that eventually move it towards colder, polar regions where it remains.

For now, Parks Canada is advising they feel swimming in the lakes is still safe. "Those who wish to swim in the lakes need to worry about the cold temperatures, rather than the risk of DDT," they write in a report.

Part of the ongoing research will look into human health and ecological risk. Boyle feels that looking at the larger issue would be relevant at this point. "DDT was a pesticide," she says when asked about the ongoing debate at the municipal level over a proposed cosmetic pesticide bylaw applying to private properties. "I think this is a really good example of what happens when we use persistent chemicals in the environment and how long they last and what their legacy effects are, and I don't think it's worth the ecological or human health risks."

Boyle recommends "taking a step back and actually listening to the scientific information that we area learning about chemicals such as herbicides and pesticides."

And it's not just about the fish, or the people, or anything in isolation. "I see other ecological effects from industrial chemicals we're using, for example DDT and Roundup – there's a surfactant in it that's thought to directly impact amphibian development, and is potentially linked to the decline of amphibians globally," says Boyle, using just one example."

I can't help but wonder at the long term effects of my father's DDT spaying around our house and property in the '50s. In his efforts to deal with the mosquitoes that loved to bite him so much, he may have put his health and his family's health in jeopardy.

Çà me rappelle qu'il y a aussi des oléoducs qui prennent de l'âge qui traversent le fleuve Saint-Laurent et la rivière Richelieu tout près d'ici...~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"Kalamazoo County's emergency management office has declared a local state of emergency, according to a 1:30 p.m. release. Enbridge said the 30-inch pipeline transfers about 8 million gallons of crude oil a day from Griffith, Ind., to Sarnia, Ontario. The leak originated from the EnbridThe Kalamazoo River flows west through the city of Kalamazoo, and then north and west through Allegan County. It flows into Lake Michigan at Saugatuck.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Tuesday hammered a company responsible for an 819,000-gallon oil spill near Marshall as the crude continued to flow westward along the Kalamazoo River, and government officials and company workers attempted to stop the disaster from spreading.

Following a helicopter flyover of the leak over the Kalamazoo River, Granholm said the oil company's response has been "anemic" after reports surfaced that a Battle Creek man reported the odor of oil to police 13 hours before the company shut off its pipe valve near the border of Marshall and Fredonia townships."

Cette triple mission du MDDEP, c'est ce que j'appelle une situation de conflits d'intérêts multiples!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~No wonder we're going nowhere fast in Quebec! The same Ministry of the Environment has the duty to protect our Province's biodiversity and endangered species. It also gives out permits to beef, poultry and pig producers so they can produce even more, even in watersheds that are at the tipping point of eutrophication. And I just learned that anybody who owns a beach where people can swim in a natural waterway must PAY this same Ministry up to $180 per visit to have their water analyzed and have the results on their Website Environnement-Plage. Talk about multiple conflicts of interests!

The Conservation Council of New Brunswick is raising concerns over a new technique that will be used extract natural gas from shale deposits located near Elgin. David Coon, the policy director for the Conservation Council, said the hydrofracking process raises environmental concerns. "Based on what's happened already across the United States, in a number of states, there's contamination of well water, reduction in supply of water from water withdrawals, air quality problems," Coon said. "When you start to get a lot of drilling activity, the industrialization of the local community where the drilling is intense."

Apache Corp., a Texas company, will begin drilling for natural gas and it's a ratcheting up of exploration following some promising finds last fall. Corridor Resources announced in May that a formerly abandoned well could have more natural gas than is available in all of western Canada's proven reserves. If sufficient gas is found Apache Corp. and Corridor Resources could team up on drilling as many as 480 new wells.

Drilling plans have to be cleared by the province's Department of Environment. Mark Glynn, the manager of industrial processes with the environment department, said existing regulations cover the risks. "The wells themselves are two kilometres or deeper. Material that remains down two kilometres below would certainly be separate from any drinking water aquifers. There wouldn't be an exposure pathway," Glynn said."

Why did a parliamentary committee suddenly destroy drafts of a final report on tar sands pollution? Here's what they knew. Fortunately, civilians can do what politicians can't. In the interests of accountability and transparency, I read through 300 pages of evidence and pulled out the sort of uncomfortable revelations that Ottawa doesn't want U.S. oil customers, industry investors or Canadian taxpayers to know. (this is a bit long, but bear with me - it's worth it!)

Killing reports paid for by Canadian taxpayers on a $200-billion backyard development is not the sort of behavior one associates with a "responsible energy producer," but there you have it. While federal panjandrums argue that the tar sands may be key to our economic prosperity, our politicians couldn't put aside their partisan views long enough to complete a national report on the project's formidable water liabilities.

Let's begin with the sorry testimony of federal regulators. They all agreed that Environment Canada has responsibilities in the tar sands under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, the Species at Risk Act, the Migratory Bird Convention and the Fisheries Act. But nobody appears to be standing on guard. Even though Environment Canada has a clear mandate to protect fish from tar sands pollutants, the agency has completed but one fish study on an industrial development with a geographical footprint larger than 20 Calgaries or 17 Denvers.*

Fred Wrona, Environment Canada's acting director general for Water Science and Technology, even admitted that a 2003 study found that oil-sand pollutants did indeed poison wild fish. "Beyond that, we have actually done no additional in-field studies looking at fish health effects."

Cynthia Wright, acting assistant deputy minister of Environmental Stewardship branch, explained that Environment Canada was not involved in the design of tailing ponds holding six-billion barrels of toxic fish-killing and cancer-making mining waste that cover an 170 square kilometre area along the Athabasca River because the ponds don't contain fish. Wright also claimed the ponds don't leak.

But two University of Waterloo scientists, who study tailings pollution and groundwater for living, gave evidence proving that Environment Canada was out to lunch. James Barker, an earth science professor at the University of Waterloo, testified that the tailing ponds do leak and seep. In particular "seepage of process affected water is occurring from the (Suncor's) Tar Island dike into the sediments of the Athabasca River" at a rate of 67 litres per second.

George Dixon, an expert on toxins such as naphthenic acids created by bitumen mining, also testified that he knew of at least two leaks from the tailing ponds into groundwater. He also told the committee that the Athabasca River now receives "chemical inputs" from natural bitumen deposits along the river as well as pollution from industrial mining activity. Dixon concluded that the research needs of the oil sands may have exceeded available human scientific resources in Canada. "It's a discomfort in that there are probably more questions that need to be asked than we're fully drawing our attention to at the present time."

William Donahue, an Alberta research scientist and lawyer, characterized the controversial Lower Athabasca River Management Framework, a tool for policing industry withdrawals, as inadequate for the job. In particular the framework failed to incorporate a predicted 50 per cent decline in water flows in the river basin due to climate change.

Arlene Kwasniak, professor of law at the University of Calgary, pointed out even more flaws in the framework. The voluntary agreement, which directs companies to suck out less water during low river flows to save the fish, is probably unenforceable under Alberta's Water Act. "There is nothing that would require compliance, nor is that anything under predecessor legislation.... If we're going to protect the river, we're going to have to have some effective legislated control." But it doesn't exist. Even though industry has now dug up 80,000 hectares of critical peatlands and wetlands, Alberta still has no wetland policy either, said Kwasniak.

Contrary to Environment Canada's fairy tale presentations, David Schindler, one of world's most respected water ecologists, told the committee that the project was directly polluting the Athabasca River. Schindler also told the committee that once upon a time the federal government did good monitoring on the river but then turned it over to Alberta which "turned a lot of it over to industry itself. As a result we have a database that's not available to independent scientists to use." Schindler also poked holes in claims made by Don Thompson, the president of the Oil Sands Developer's Group. Thompson told the committee there is no pollution in the Athabasca River because an industry funded multi-stakeholder group, the Regional Aquatic Monitoring Program (RAMP), couldn't find any. But Schindler described RAMP as a secretive, inconsistent and "unsuccessful" program. He noted that three federal scientists offered a scathing critique of RAMP in 2004. The scientists found that RAMP repeatedly changed what pollutants it studied and where and how it sampled them..."all the things that violate the first principles of monitoring programs."

Expert after expert all warned that the steam plants could impact a region the size of Florida by withdrawing almost as much water from the ground as the mines were now taking from the Athabasca River. Some unmapped underground aquifers in the region may even extend as far away as the Northwest Territories and Manitoba.

James Bruce, an acclaimed climate scientist and former director of Environment Canada's now defunct Inland Waters Directorate, testified that reports by the Alberta Research Council and the Council of Canadian Academies pointedly concluded that in situ projects have "gone ahead with a completely inadequate understanding of the groundwater regime in the area and they are having significant impacts on water.... We considered it a pretty unsustainable situation."

Alfonso Rivera, manager of Natural Resources Groundwater Mapping Program, then confirmed the terrible accuracy of Bruce's testimony. Asked if the government of Canada had studied the impact of the tar sands on groundwater Rivera replied that "The short answer is no. We are not able to provide facts."

David Boerner, an administrator with the Geological Survey of Canada, explained that Canada had only mapped 12 of 30 critical aquifers in the country and that "lack of information is the real problem."

Chief Bill Erasmus, regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations for the Northwest Territories, called for an immediate halt to tar sands expansion until the government prepared emergency plans in case of catastrophic breaches in some 20 tailing ponds. He also called for a dry tailing process as well as a 10-year plan to immediately clean up six billion barrels of mining waste in the region.

Michael Miltenberger, environment and natural resources minister for the Northwest Territories, wondered why the federal government had abandoned the Mackenzie River Basin Transboundary Waters Master Agreement. After 25 years of negotiations ,the federal government, four provinces and two territories finally agreed to protect the world's third largest watershed in 1997. But ever since the world's largest energy project started to fill up Ottawa coffers, the federal government ignored that agreement.

J. Owen Saunders, executive director of the Canadian Institute of Resources Law, called the abandonment of the basin's future a grave mistake. "There are important federal interests here and a clear need for federal leadership which has largely been abdicated by the federal government over the last three decades.""

A dangerous algae which forced the closure of two Lanarkshire lochs could disrupt water sports for the rest of the summer. Water samples taken by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) at Strathclyde Loch in Strathclyde Country Park, Motherwell, and Lochend Loch at Drumpellier Country Park, Coatbridge, have shown “abundant” blue green algae (BGA). BGA blooms often produce toxins that can harm humans and animals.

North Lanarkshire Council has temporarily cancelled all watersports than involve being immersed in the water and are advising people not to let their pets drink or play in the water. It could be months before the ban is lifted. The Strathclyde Park Watersports Centre is used for rowing, sailing, waterski events and jetski racing. The internationally renowned venue will host events during the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Lochend Loch is used for recreational watersports, with visitors able hire rowing boats and pedaloes. The British Rowing Championships will be held at Strathclyde Loch this weekend but will not be affected as competitors are not expected to leave their boats and enter the water. However, water-skiing, swimming and windsurfing will not be available.

Scottish Natural Heritage’s Dr Colin Bean said: “The recent heat will have contributed to the algae blooms. “While not all BGA is toxic, some of it is and it can be dangerous to both animals and humans.” Symptoms of contact with or ingestion of BGA infected water include abdominal pains, vomiting, diarrhoea, a sore throat and blistering in the mouth.Pneumonia and gastroenteritis are also possible. Ingestion of the toxic scums that can be formed by algal blooms has caused deaths in cattle, sheep, dogs, birds and fish.

BGA, often referred to as pond scum, is most often blue-green in color, but can also be blue, green, reddish-purple, or brown. It generally grows in lakes, ponds, and slow-moving streams."

Gas and oil companies have deflected congressional inquiries about whether they are drilling near underground drinking water sources and how they are disposing of the chemical-laden wastewater their operations produce, according to a news release issued by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass.

The congressmen, both members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, tried to get answers to these questions by sending letters to 14 oil and gas service companies that use a controversial drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing. But the 14 companies -- which include Halliburton and Universal Well Services -- said that because they are "well servicers" and not "well operators," they don't maintain the information the congressmen are asking for. Markey and Waxman are members of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which in February began investigating the potential environmental and human health impacts of natural gas drilling.

Now the congressmen are turning to 10 industry giants for the information, including BP America, Encana Corporation and Chesapeake Energy Corporation. In letters (PDF) sent on Monday, they gave the companies until July 26 to notify them whether they'll comply with the request and until Aug. 6 to actually deliver the information.

The lawmakers' quest for information shows how responsibility for drilling operations can be diffused among a variety of contractors, each doing a different job. For instance, BJ Services, a company that designs wells and pumps the water underground, told the congressmen that it "does not track or maintain such data because it is the responsibility of the well operator to drill in compliance with the applicable statutes and regulations concerning subsurface aquifers.""

The Pickering nuclear power plant is killing fish by the millions. Close to one million fish and 62 million fish eggs and larvae die each year when they’re sucked into the water intake channel in Lake Ontario, which the plant uses to cool steam condensers. The fish, which include alewife, northern pike, Chinook salmon and rainbow smelt, are killed when they’re trapped on intake screens or suffer cold water shock after leaving warmer water that’s discharged into the lake.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has told Ontario Power Generation, which operates the plant, to reduce fish mortality by 80 per cent. And in renewing Pickering A station’s operating licence last month (June 2010), the nuclear regulator asked for annual public reports on fish mortality and the effectiveness of steps OPG is taking to reduce rates.

“Quite clearly we were talking about a lot of fish,” says a spokesperson for the commission, adding that while the kill has been going on “forever,” environmental issues were only recently added to licensing considerations. A 610-metre barrier net it has strung in front of the channel is insufficient because it’s removed in winter and “does nothing about thermal pollution and nothing about larvae and eggs,” says Mark Mattson, president of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, a grassroots charity working to protect the health of the lake.

“This is important to the lake’s ecosystem — the birds and people who eat the fish, and the commercial fishery,” he said in an interview. “What a terrible precedent it is that one of the biggest public corporations can just ignore the rules for fish and fish habitat in Canada.” Mattson calls the plant’s cooling system the worst of available technologies. “It sucks in clean water along with fish, eggs and larvae, then spits it back at close to hot-tub temperatures.”

Noting that OPG spends more than $1 million a year on habitat projects in the province, he said the operator will consider stocking the lake with fish to replace those killed.

The nuclear safety commission told OPG in October 2008 to fix the problem, reducing mortality for adult fish by 80 per cent and for eggs and larvae by 60 per cent. Citing the company’s failure to protect the lake’s inhabitants, the commission called the fish kill “an unreasonable risk to the environment.”"

What can I add? Sure is nice to have friends in high places...What would happen to Joe Blow if he caused a fish kill every year, even after being warned in 2008? Bet HE would not have had his license renewed!

Phthalate exposure may impair female reproduction at many levels, from growth and maturation of eggs to their release, a fish study shows. Reproductive problems leading to infertility were seen in female fish exposed to pthalates at levels generally found in the environment. The results are some of the first to show the plasticizers can affect females as well as males, report researchers in the online journal PLoSOne.

Many of the effects found in the study depended on the doses of DEHP administered to the fish, which were environmentally relevant, that is, within a range the people and wildlife might experience. This preliminary evidence of the effects of DEHP on the female reproductive system suggests that further study on females is warranted in other species, including humans.

Evidence has increasingly implicated phthalates, a group of environmental chemicals commonly used to soften plastics, in a wide range of health issues from obesity to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Because phthalates are so pervasive in the environment, nearly all humans are exposed to these chemicals, making their health effects a particular concern.

Phthalates typically act as anti-androgens, reducing testosterone production, and one particularly potent phthalate, DEHP, has gained notoriety for its negative effects on the development of the male reproductive system. In animal models (and, to a lesser extent, humans), DEHP exposure has been linked to decreased sperm counts and altered development of the external genitals in males. To date, however, few studies have shown that female reproductive function may be at risk as well."

"Members of Save Our Seas and Shores Coalition (SOS) held a press conference Monday (July 19th 2010) at Melmerby Beach to call for a moratorium on oil and gas development in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. An oil exploration lease has been issued to Corridor Resources next to the Iles de la Madeleines in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Seismic is planned for the fall with drilling foreseen by 2012, states a SOS press release.

“Shoreline landowners in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Quebec should be very concerned with evidence that we are seeing that the oil and gas industry is sorely unprepared to deal with spills. They have proven that they don’t know how to prevent a spill, they don’t know how to stop a spill and they don’t know how to clean up a spill,” said Green Party Leader Elizabeth May who spoke on the issue yesterday at the press conference.

The group states that because of the gulf’s counter-clockwise circulatory currents, if there is an oil spill from the proposed deepwater oil well site, contamination of the shorelines and coastal communities in Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island will put the fishing industry at risk."

The people of the Iles de la Madeleine came to see the people of Saint-Marc-sur-Richelieu on the night the document "Québécoises, Québécois....Dormons-nous au gaz...de schiste" was made available to the public, in solidarity: both groups want to take control of the natural resources in their locality.

The first group,the military forts and other historical sites, obviously lends itself to themes of social, cultural and military history. The landscape lends itself to recreation of all sorts (biking, hiking etc.), ecotourism, and agrotourism. The river while also supporting boating and water sport activity, forms the broader functional of acting as a scenic focal point for the all activities in the area, simply by virtue of being the central geographic feature of the region.

Cultural activities in general, while not necessarily tied to a specific physical resource, are often a product of landscape and history, and thus susceptible to a number of interrelated thematic approaches.

The Richelieu valley has a wealth of historical resources. The major sites, Forts Lennox and Chambly, and the locks at Chambly and St-Ours, are administered by the federal government, but there are numerous historical buildings and sites run by the province of Québec of local groups. Because historical buildings and sites are a critical element in determining the heritage character of urban, village, and rural landscapes, and form one of the major anchors of any promotional effort, it should be a high priority to create and maintain complete inventories of such properties.

The Richelieu valley is endowed with an abundance of areas suitable for recreation and related tourism activities. Recreational tourism relies on a well-maintained infrastructure of public access sites. In some of these (bike paths, hiking trails, public golf courses) there is a reasonably heavy burden for direct government support. Because most recreational activities by their nature involve movement around the region, recreational infrastructure such as hiking trails and biking paths can be used to create links to various other resources, such as historical sites and nature preserves.

Agrotourism has good potential for growth in the Richelieu valley. There is a good deal of diversity, ranging from gastronomically-oriented destinations such as wineries, cheesemakers, and chocolateries to family-oriented activities such as apple picking.

The Richelieu valley has a number of nature reserves and ecologically valuable sites along the river, including the World Biosphere Reserve at Sorel, which could be extended and linked together. A challenge, however, for any ecotourism development effort will be protecting the 18 species of animals and 44 species of plants and their associated habitats along the Richelieu that are considered vulnerable.

The Richelieu valley is host to numerous types of annual events that attract visitors to the area. Because annual events become tourist destinations, an effort needs to be made to create a regional context that anchors each event thematically in the region and creates links among events and other regional resources. A corollary of any program of heritage tourism development is that the value of landscape itself needs to be included in any development planning. Though it is difficulty to quantify, there can be no doubting the added value of a surrounding, beautiful, inviting landscape for any given recreational activity. "

What we do produce in enormous quantities is manure. Federal figures show that Ontario and Quebec together produce manure equivalent to the sewage from 100 million people. It is sprayed, mixed with water, on fields near the Great Lakes, especially lakes Huron and Erie, and the smaller St. Clair.

Miller (Gord Miller, environmental commissioner for Ontario) argued in his speech that the biggest threat to Ontario's water isn't toxic waste. It's manure.

Manure is called "nutrients" in official circles, but in reality it's foul-smelling brown stuff, especially the manure from factory farms that is kept in huge vats, fermenting a bit, and sprayed on fields in spring and fall. (And sometimes winter. They shouldn't do this because it runs off frozen land in spring into lakes and rivers, but people sometimes do it anyway.)

For years we've been told E. coli and other pathogenic material in fresh water comes from both farm animals and from humans, the implication that both groups are equally part of the problem. But a recent study of Lake Huron looked at the DNA of E. coli. It shows that only about one to three per cent of the lake's E. coli come from humans -- and about 60 per cent comes from livestock manure. The rest is either unknown or from wildlife.

So human sewage isn't the problem. The problem is the spraying of more animal manure than the land can soak up.

And yet Canadian and U.S. pollution regulations still focus on the enemies of the 1970s, the remnants of days when the chemical factories dumped waste material in a shallow hole out back, near the local river or lake. That's yesterday's problem. It's time to focus on the real, Walkerton-style pollution. There's less poison today, but more animal sewage.

This problem appears to threaten more than our waterways. At Newcastle University in England, scientists have been measuring how natural bacteria change over time. In farm soil, they've found something odd: soil bacteria are showing genetic signs of resistance to a variety of antibiotics. Professor David Graham, who led the research, said the findings suggest an emerging threat to public and environmental health.

Graham's point is that drug resistance in infectious disease bugs is a known threat. It most often takes the form of "superbugs" that infect people, often in hospitals. A common one is MRSA, a staphylococcus bug that resists the drug methicillin. We know that hot spots of drug-resistance in soil bacteria are often near hog farms. Pigs get antibiotics in their food regularly, sick or not, and the drugs are flushed out with the manure. In high volume, this is enough to change those soil bacteria.

But then again, soil bacteria don't affect us directly, right? They help crops grow, and it doesn't matter, does it, whether they can resist antibiotics?

Turns out these bugs may affect us after all. Back at Newcastle, Graham points out that harmless soil bacteria could pass on a resistant gene to a disease-causing pathogen, such as MRSA, with obvious consequences. (Bacteria are weird; they borrow genes from each other, and from their hosts.)"

That said, the coordinator of COVABAR, a non-profit-making organization that aims at developing a systemic approach so as to obtain an integrated administration of resources and activities, for a sustainable development of the whole valley of the Richelieu, Marcel Comiré, always make sure to say in public (when I'm in hearing range anyway) that there is nothing to worry about pig farms, and that Richelieu is the only town that had an uprising against its new pig farm. ALL LIES!

Federal politicians from the government and opposition benches have mysteriously cancelled an 18-month investigation into oilsands pollution in water and opted to destroy draft copies of their final report, Canwest News Service has learned. The aborted investigation comes as new questions are being raised about the Harper government's decision to exempt a primary toxic pollutant found in oilsands tailings ponds from a regulatory agenda.

The government is in the process of categorizing industry-produced substances that could either be toxic or harmful, but has excluded naphthenic acid - a toxin from oilsands operations - from the list, and left it off another list of substances that companies are required to track and report.

The exclusion is "alarming" according to a letter sent Tuesday to Environment Minister Jim Prentice and Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, since the federal and Alberta governments have already identified it as a primary source of pollution in liquid waste dumped into ponds after companies extract oil from the region.

"Naphthenic acids are one of the main pollutants responsible for the toxicity of tarsands tailings to aquatic organisms, and have been shown to harm liver, heart and brain function in mammals," wrote Matt Price, the policy director at Environmental Defence, an independent research organization based in Toronto. "Naphthenic acids are also very long-lived, taking decades to break down."

Price also said in the letter that the federal and provincial governments are already allowing some of the toxins to leak into groundwater and surface water. "It is therefore urgent that all tailings pollutants, and naphthenic acid in particular, be properly assessed and managed to minimize the risk to human and environmental health," he wrote.

The MPs made the decision to terminate their investigation and destroy copies of their report in a meeting behind closed doors on June 17, and they have all declined to provide details on what happened apart from explaining that they failed to reach a consensus."

A 90-acre pasture along a busy roadway has become the latest battleground in the fight over natural gas drilling in Flower Mound. A proposal to put a gas drilling pad on the site is pitting property owners' rights against some residents' concern for public health and safety. The site could accommodate up to 20 wells.

Residents who oppose drilling on the site say the location is too close to homes and schools. The property, jointly owned by Hilliard and his sister, J.R. Martin of Lewisville, has changed little over the years. About 20 head of cattle, a couple of horses and a donkey roam the open field dotted with brush and trees. While the Hilliard land retains its rural character, the surrounding property has changed dramatically.

FM2499, which used to be a dirt road where Hilliard and Martin caught the school bus, is now busy Long Prairie Road traveled daily by 40,000 motorists. Shadow Ridge Middle School and Bluebonnet Elementary School are southeast of the property. The west side of Long Prairie Road is filled with rows of tidy brick homes.

Gas wells are a common site in the rural part of western Flower Mound that stretches toward Interstate 35W. But many residents feel the eastern part of town – more densely occupied with homes, churches, schools and stores – is no place for gas drilling. Residents packed a recent Flower Mound Oil and Gas Board of Appeals meeting to oppose Titan Operating's request for four variances needed to put a pad site on the Hilliard property. They expressed concern about noise, increased truck traffic and the impact on home values. They voiced fears about air emissions from drilling, leaks from underground pipes, and the possibility of an explosion at a site so close to schools and homes.

After the gas and oil board denied Titan's request, Hilliard has been busy making changes to his property to meet the town's regulations. He's torn down a storage shed, removed some trees, and plans to seal off an artesian well that's supplied the family's water for years. Hilliard also plans to move the proposed gas pad so it would be farther away from a drainage area. Instead of being behind a row of trees, the new location would be in an open field closer to the busy roadway. "I've tried to do what's best for everybody and got so much resistance," he said defiantly. "Now I'm going to do what's legal."

Once his well is capped, Hilliard said, he will have met all the town's regulations and sees no reason for his drilling permit application to be denied. Town officials have said they would have no choice but to approve it if all requirements are met. But concerned residents said the town can deny Hilliard's application to protect the health, safety and character of the community. If that happens, Hilliard and his sister vow to take legal action to drill for gas on their land. "It's our birthright and our inheritance," Martin said. "We don't want anything that's not ours, but we want everything that is.""

A glimpse into the future. I'm afraid this is going to happen in many little towns and villages all across the Saint-Lawrence Valley, including Saint-Marc-sur-Richelieu just downriver, where they are waiting for the verdict from one last permit required to allow drilling on prime agricultural land, near homes and a daycare center.

Thousands of fish have been rescued from Britain's rivers as water levels have dropped to exceptionally low levels. Specialist teams have been forced to mount rescue operations for fish that have become trapped in isolated pools as rivers have begun to dry up in the summer heat.

The teams scoop the fish up with hand nets and put them in an aerated tank of water on the back of a truck to transport them to stretches of river where water is still flowing. Experts say the last six months have been the driest since 1953, leaving large swathes of Wales, the Lake District and most of Scotland in the grip of drought.

Low rainfall during June and high demand for tap water has also seen two UK water companies take official drought action. United Utilities has imposed a hosepipe ban throughout much of the North West of England while Scottish Water has applied for permission to take water from rivers after reservoirs in Dumfries and Galloway fell to critically low levels. Some rivers are so low that they have just a fifth of their typical flow for this time of year.

Officials at the Environment Agency have been forced to send out teams of fisheries officers to rescue fish trapped by drying river beds. Since the beginning of June they have performed 19 rescues in rivers around the country, moving species including trout, salmon, eels, and coarse fish to parts of the rivers where the flow was greater.

Simon Whitton, a fisheries officer with the Environment Agency, said: "It is actually quite rare to have to rescue fish from rivers. "Typically we do this kind of rescue in small lakes where the oxygen is being used up because of low flow. This year, the rivers are becoming so dry that fish are getting trapped in small pools."

The Environment Agency has warned that if the hot, dry weather conditions continue then more water companies may have to take drought management actions. Water companies have faced criticism as leaking pipes in Britain's creaking water supply system saw the loss of 3.2 billion litres of water."

Hard to believe that a country that is known for its rainy weather whose people practically invented fly fishing is now reduced to this! And to ask the British to let their gardens, flower beds and precious roses cook under the sun without watering them? Positively horrid!

I'm the second generation of my family that lives in Richelieu, Quebec, in Canada. My family tree, both from my mother's and my father's side, has its roots in Quebec since the beginning of the 1600s: my ancestors crossed the ocean from France, leaving Perche and Normandy behind them. Both French AND English are my mother tongues: I learned to talk in both languages when I was a baby, and both my parents were perfectly bilingual too.